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As a fan of historical crime fiction, I'm admitting to some bias when I tell you that one of my favorite panels at PAX East 2025 was the Mafia: The Old Country, presented by Nick Baynes (president of Mafia studio Hangar 13), Alex Cox (game director for The Old Country), and Tomáš Hřebíček (cinematic director for The Old Country). Still, though, I think anybody who appreciates any kind of video game crafting would've gotten a lot out of the panel, especially from the focused discussion on bringing authenticity to the upcoming Mafia prequel.

"The authenticity is very high-priority to us," Hřebíček told the audience, "So the research was very extensive. The question for us was, 'How do we immerse ourselves?,' so we sent the dev team over to Sicily. To walk the streets, to feel the climate, to talk to people. We talked to local historians, learned what the life was like back then. We went down to the sulfur mines and learned how brutal and dangerous life was there to survive."

[For context - the main character of Mafia: The Old Country is Enzo Favara, a boy who begins his journey being forced into working the sulfur mines in the early 20th century.]

"To create a game experience that is very immersive," Cox jumps in, "That transports you back to the time period, it's very important to actually go and see it yourself. When we went to Sicily, we saw the ruins, [...] we ate the food, we spoke to the people, we learned the swear words. We translated that into a game experience as authentic as everyone is expecting."

However, there was of key aspect of the game's research that the dev team didn't encounter in Sicily. Mafia: The Old Country puts the player behind the wheel of turn-of-the-century cars, and to get a feel for that, the tam had to go elsewhere.

"In the Czech Republic," explains Hřebíček, "We found a huge museum with all sorts of different cars. The museum owner didn't just allow us to take pictures on the cars, but actually let us take them out to drive. This is the first time we were able to hook up a dozen microphones all around the car and capture all the possible sounds. Not just engine noises, [but] all the creaks the springs and all the metal shifts of the body of the car. The sounds of the car are rich and authentic and amazing."

Again, maybe that's just the old-timey crimey fan in me, but that sounds like research I'd love to do.

Mafia: The Old Country comes to consoles August 8.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

• All upcoming games in 2025 and beyond
• Gamify My Life, our weekly gaming column designed
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